Get your kicks on Route 66 - that's the theme song from the Disney/Pixar movie Cars, but did you know there's a real Route 66? It's true! It passes through Amarillo, Texas, on its way to California, touching on such down-south attractions as the Cadillac Ranch (an art display made of half-buried cars) and the Big Texan Steak Ranch (where you can get your meal free if you eat a huge steak in under an hour). There's no doubt about it, Amarillo has the sort of quaint, old-time charm that's hard to pass up. About 186,000 people call it home. Some are cattle ranchers, others are teachers, doctors, physicists: it takes all kinds! If you're considering buying a home in the Texas panhandle, Amarillo is a place you'll definitely want to look into.

The city was founded in April of 1887 by a man called J.T. Berry and named "Amarillo," the Spanish word for yellow, because of the acres of pretty yellow flowers that coated the site. Placed on the railway route from Fort Worth to Denver, Amarillo was originally intended to be the region's biggest trading town. Fortunes did boom for Amarillo, just not in the way they expected. The city quickly became one of the biggest cattle marketing centers in the world, an industry that remains strong today thanks to the massive Tyson meat-packing plant.

Being located in a region of flat, open plains has done wonders for the city in terms of building space. There are nearly 200,000 people here but in most neighborhoods you'd never know it, because the city spans nearly 90 square miles, enough to give each person a little breathing room. Anyone considering buying property in the city will be pleased to know that housing values in the city have remained modest, even dropping some in the recent recession. The average value of a house or condo here is around $97,000, significantly below the Texas state average.

The plentiful space and hot, arid climate mean the houses you're most likely to find in Amarillo will be in the single-story ranch style. Cooler building materials like stone, brick, and stucco are popular, and you may see a lot of Spanish Colonial-style influences, like clay roofs, archways, and tiled floors. Neighborhoods in Amarillo cater to a variety of budgets, but generally speaking the more expensive homes and more affluent neighborhoods are in the southwestern quadrant of the city. But why take our word for it? Come on down to Amarillo, Texas and have a look for yourself.